Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. rallied 1.3% in premarket trading, after the air carrier reported a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss but revenue that fell just shy of forecasts, but increased its April outlook for revenue and load factor. The company swung to net income of $116 million, or 19 cents a share, from a loss of $94 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as benefits from federal payroll support, the adjusted per-share loss was $1.72, but that beat the FactSet loss consensus of $1.85. Total revenue fell 51.5% to $2.05 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $2.07 billion. Load factor fell to 64.3% from 67.7% but topped expectations of 59.6%. Average daily cash burn was $13 million, including average cash burn of $9 million per day in March. The company expects second-quarter average daily cash burn of $2 million to $4 million. For April, the company said it now expects revenue to be down 40% to 45% and load factor of 75% to 80%, compared with previous expectations for revenue to be down 45% to 55% and for load factor of 70% to 75%. The stock has run up 33.1% year to date through Wednesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF has climbed 14.5% and the S&P 500 has advanced 11.1%.
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